Bands/Artists We Love – Ocean Colour Scene












 
The eight act in this series of ten (in no particular order), is one of the most important and influential bands in my life, Ocean Colour Scene.
 
OCS holds an undisputed place amongst my favorites as I discovered their music a few years before college which is where I got into Paul Weller, The Jam, The Clash, Oasis, The Who and so on… On a previous post I mentioned how when I was younger movies would play a huge role introducing me to new music, well that’s exactly how I discovered OCS. I remember a good mate who was always introducing me to cool movies that hadn’t been shown at the theater down here got the DVD for Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. I absolutely loved the movie but the biggest impact to me came on the opening scene when the guitar on Hundred Mile High City kicks off, I was in awe as I don’t think I’d ever heard anything like that before. It would be a few more years till I got to discover OCS’s full discography (in college) but it had such a huge impact on me that when I got a show at my college radio station, I chose Hundred Mile High city as the opening song for my weekly show.
 
I love and own every album they’ve released, with my top 3 favorite albums by them being Moseley Shoals, Marchin’ Already and North Atlantic Drift. Their acoustic albums are out of this world as well (BBC Sessions, Live at The Jam House, Live at The Riverboat and Live at Bridgewater Hall all being essential releases).
I once planned a trip and was supposed to finally see them live at the V Festival but unfortunately after I had planned everything they changed venues as another band canceled so they were promoted to headline a stage, so unfortunately I missed them as we could only attend one day of the festival…they sit atop of my gig bucket list.
I have however been lucky enough to have seen and met Steve Cradock on various occasions while he’s played live with Paul Weller. Steve is my favorite guitarist and definitely the best I’ve ever had the honor to see live (and I’ve been lucky to have seen some truly great ones).

Here’s a short playlist with my favorite OCS songs, give them a listen and brighten your day:
 

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